It’s hard to believe summer is over. Technically the Autumn Equinox is not until September 22, and there’s plenty of warm sunny days to come until then and a little later. Where I live, the fun generally stops by Labor Day — the public swimming pools, neighborhood music festivals, free concerts in Grant Park. Of course this year, none of that happened. But I’m not whining, I’m going to take not freakin’ dying, and not being responsible for the death of anyone else by spreading a killer virus, as a big win.
Anyway, the likelihood of music clubs not being able to open until summer 2021 or later is grim. Artists who have depended on performing live are suffering. Yet many are adapting, and a slowly growing percentage of new releases are ones recorded since the pandemic hit. While some releases have been delayed, there is still more great music than anyone can track. I have gotten into a ritual of listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered New Music Friday show on Friday mornings. While they usually cover about eight albums, they also squeeze in another dozen or so albums in their lightning round. Despite that, there’s usually very little, or sometimes no crossover with the new releases I feature on my Spotify playlist.
It goes to show the massive amount of music that is coming out, but also some significant ball-dropping on their part (as well as Pitchfork, Sound Opinions, etc.) That’s partly why I’m still compelled to do this. A recap of the best albums from the summer solstice to September that I’ve previously reviewed:
- Motorpsycho – All Is One (Rune Grammafon/Stickman) | Buy
- Custard Flux – Oxygen (Custard Flux) | Bandcamp
- The Primevals – Second Nature (Triple Wide) | Bandcamp
- Pottery – Welcome To Bobby’s Motel (Partisan) | Bandcamp
- Thiago Nassif – Mente (Gearbox) | Bandcamp
- Maggot Heart – Mercy Machine (Rapid Eye) | Bandcamp
- Butterfly – Doorways Of Time (High Voltage) | Bandcamp
1. Paul Molloy – The Fifth Dandelion (Spring Heeled) Aug 21
Paul Molloy has played guitar with numerous bands over the past couple decades, including The Stands and The Zutons, and most recently as half of Serpent Power with The Coral’s Ian Skelly. He clearly has been squirreling away his most charming songs for his solo debut. The light sunshine pop of “Dungaree Day,” so airy it threatens to dissipate into the stratosphear, is balanced by darker, sometimes spooky atmospheres such as “Phantasmagoria,” “Andromeda,” and “Bring In The Night.” “My Madonna” is a nearly perfect tune that Paul McCartnery would envy. A rainbow sno-cone treat of a psych pop album. Let’s hope there’s more to come. | Buy
2. Turtle Skull – Monoliths (Art As Catharsis) Aug 28
When a quirky, tongue-in-cheek tag like “flower doom” is used to describe a band, it can either mean a load of the same old derivative rubbish, or it could hint that a band has hit upon a truly unique mix of genres and flavors. Fortunately the latter is the case with Sydney, Australia’s Turtle Skull, who take elements of stoner doom and Torche’s sludge pop and infuse it with Crosby Stills Nash & Young harmonies, early Pink Floyd space psych, kosmische, post-rock textures, desert rock and Americana, and even elements of New Age and ambient. The resulting multilayered delicacy is yummier than anything remotely similar that I can think of (Earth?). They had a promising EP a couple years ago, but this is a truly game-changing debut with reverberations likely to resonate around the world with it’s subsequent influence.
3. High Spirits – Hard To Stop (Professor Black) Jul 31
One of the privileges of living in the same metro area as Chris Black pre-pandemic was being able to see his various hard rock and heavy metal incarnations live with some regularity, including one fun showcase as Professor Black that included songs from all his projects, including Dawnbringer. High Spirits has been the most frequent live vehicle in recent years, and he clearly has the most fun with this band. As do we. There’s a handful of bands, especially in Scandinavia, who do a pretty good job of taking the good parts of 80s AOR rock, losing the overwrought fat and leaving in the good parts informed by Thin Lizzy, UFO, Scorpions. But no one does it as consistently as High Spirits on their fourth album. High energy, triumphant major key rock with hooks, concise solos, and sing/shout-along choruses. We need dis.
4. All Them Witches – Nothing As the Ideal (New West) Sep 4
Nashville’s All Them Witches are a hard working band, which means I’ve gotten to seen them live through several stages of their development, from psychedelic blues with impressively complex and juicy tones and textures, to a more jammy live entity, and ultimately a creatively restless, experimental band starting with their third, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (2015). The sixth album continues their creative streak as a stoner psych Radiohead/Pink Floyd. The first two minutes of opener “Saturnine & Iron Jaw” is an ambient soundscape with a subtle build-up, the guitar leading into the full band kicking in with the “Iron Jaw” portion. “Enemy Of My Enemy” is the most traditionally rocking with chugging riffs. The 9:50 long centerpiece “See You Next Fall” starts with some more abstract soundscape, before the satisfying rumble of bass and drums come in — you can practically see the dry ice smoke.”The Children Of Coyote Woman” picks up the narrative of a character first introduced in two songs on Lightning At The Door (2013). The Americana/western noir sound suits them here, and I could see them exploring the desert and tumbleweed territory more in the future. “41” features some of the most powerful moments with the haunting, harmonized choruses.
5. Sons Of Southern Ulster – Sinners And Lost Souls (HT) Jun 15
Justinus Kelly and David Meagher were mates from County Cavan, Ireland who followed punk bands in the late 70s/early 80s, and started their own band, Panic Merchants, they probably didn’t go anywhere because they couldn’t really play. Thirty plus years later, they began collaborating long distance as Sons Of Southern Ulster, Kelly in Boston, Meagher in Ireland, coming out with Foundry Folk Songs in 2015. What started as folk became a bracing combination of spoken word poetry and post-punk, a combo that the young Dublin band Fontaines D.C. hit big with last year. It took five years for their follow-up, and it was worth the wait, as it’s spilling over with bitter regret, seething anger, nostalgia, passion. It’s about a hundred times more fiery than the Fontaines’ lackluster A Hero’s Death (don’t get me wrong, I like that band — Dogrel made my Lucky 13, but this album kicks the living shit out of their latest). There’s also more melodic payoffs on this album, like the haunting “New Day Rises,” and the bracing chorus of “Fear My Scorn.” They can certainly do dirges worthy of Joy Division and The Cure, such as “The Fall.” One of the most welcome surprises of the year.
6. Figueroa – The World As We Know It (Nomark) Jul 30
From 1997 to 2002, Brazilian transplant Amon Tobin released four of the most stunningly original electronic albums, fusing drum ‘n’ bass and jazz that far outclassed any contemporaries. The inspiration seemed to subside over the years, but it wasn’t gone, just stagnant in IDM hell. Tobin has chewing at his shackles with some collaborations, but Figueroa is where his muse is fully uncaged, in the format of psychedelic folk! It’s completely electronic, with no acoustic instruments (other than human voices), yet also a guitar album. What? Or the Bandcamp page claims — “And so we have something of an anomaly.” Quite so. Well I’ll take this anomoly over the entire history of electronic based music, so, carry on, good sir. Program those guitars and let the valkyries and unicorns ride free!
7. Rattlesnake Milk – Rattlesnake Milk (Feels So Good) Apr 28
This album eluded me for a while because of it’s absence from Bandcamp, no CD, no way to buy lossless files. You can buy MP3s on Amazon and stream on Spotify, so it’s something. Their first album, Snake Rattle And Roll (2013) is on Bandcamp, but this one takes a big leap in improvement. They may not be the first Ameriana band from the Texas panhandle, but the way they can evoke the sounds of the prairie, trains and coyotes is pretty unique, particularly in 2020. They moved to Austin, and if there’s any clubs left after all this, they’ll be high on my list as one to see. Hopefully by then they can get their shit on Bandcamp too. | Buy shitty MP3s
8. Blues Pills – Holy Moly! (Nuclear Blast) Aug 21
I was disappointed to learn that Sweden’s Blues Pills lost their young guitar prodigy Dorian Sorriaux, who I’d hoped would take them into some interesting psych prog territory. That didn’t happen, but the band has soldiered on, not really progressing from their blues psych origins, but at least fine tuning it some with a great, energetic batch of rockers, lead by Elin Larsson’s soulful voice maturing into an instrument more powerful than ever . | Buy
9. Valkyrie – Fear (Relapse) Jul 24
Brothers Jake and Pete Adams are not exactly prolific, even after Pete quit Baroness to focus on Valkyrie. This is just their fourth album in fourteen years, but at this point, we should be lucky to be gifted with new music from one of the major bands to revive twin lead guitar harmonies. This sounds quite different from Shadows (2015), with more progressive, complex arrangements that kind of brings them full circle to the direction Baroness began with Red back in 2007. No complaints though, I’ll stay on this cyclical Ourorobos of a ride into the hazy red sunset.
10. Sheverb – Once Upon A Time In Bombay Beach (Ladies Of Reverb) Aug 28
Austin is one of the most vibrant music cities in the world, but it made sense for Sheverb, a majority womxn-led instrumental desert surf/psych noir band to remove all distractions and isolate themselves at a semi-abandoned seaside resort town in the Southern Californian desert to create their second album. They built a studio in a barn and lived and worked together for a month on the album, and came up with something quite special. Like the best of the Mermen, I could listen to this on repeat all day. I hope there’s more to come from this fabulously weird band.
11. soapeyed – We Saw It Coming (soapeyed) Jun 13
soapeyed is the most recent creative project from Scott Puhl, who’s worked under several names, including Tantalus, Dm, Eggnyet, The Rainbow Gland, and other bands and collaborations. soapeyed dishes out my favorite project so far, rooted in psychedelic post-punk, goth and shoegaze. Opener “Forecasts Falter” brings to mind Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Ariel Pink but without the issues of overclutter that those artists sometimes have. The guitar plucking on “Scars & Sorries” brings to mind 1980-82 era The Cure, the closing accented perfectly with eerie keyboards. “Fables” is another highlight, the ringing effects evoking space-traveling whales. “Whiner Gods” features a great Birthday Party thwomp, and anguish/wounded betrayal has never sounded so lovely in the lilting guitars of “Silver Lies.”
“Sometimes Greyskies” is an excellent mid-album instrumental interlude, a dreamy drone. “Here Comes Bad Times” is the closest thing to a pop song on this album, love that three second bass solo! The album closes with a chugging raver that manages to evoke both Vanishing Point-era Primal Scream and Eno’s “Here Come the Warm Jets.” The layers of sounds subtly get more complex and fascinating midway through — at one point the synths sound like sparklers. A great, satisfying end to this moody carnival ride.
12. Maria Schneider Orchestra – Data Lords (ArtistShare) Jul 24
Maria Schneider has lead large, progressive big band jazz orchestras since 1994, and got some crossover attention from working with David Bowie on Blackstar (2016). Her latest project is a massive crowd-funded, 96 minute long double album. I don’t know her previous work well enough to say this is her best, but it’s certainly an engrossing, beautiful introduction to her work. | Buy
13. Dead Lord – Surrender (Century Media) Sep 4
I first wrote about Swedish hard rockers Dead Lord in the context of bands heavily influenced by Thin Lizzy. As always, I’m slightly late to their latest release, as they are one of the few holdouts that refuse to use Bandcamp. It’s worth tracking down though for any fans of twin guitarmonies and well constructed melodic hard rock. Their fourth album is not much different from the last couple, but their performance sounds incrementally more confident and assured, with Hakim Krim’s soulful vocals still evoking the great Phil Lynott, but incorporating his own road tested life experiences. On “Messin’ Up” I’m also reminded of Graham Parker, mostly likely due to his and Lynott’s shared influence of Van Morrison. I still haven’t gotten to see them live, but with Carousel sadly breaking up after a triumphant performance at Roadburn 2016, and Black Trip evolving into VOJD, and Valkyrie changing their approach, Dead Lord is the more valuable for their service. | Buy
These 20 albums (7 got full reviews over the summer, plus the 13 new blurbs I covered) are just scratching the surface, trust me. Streaming is a blessing and curse (aren’t all things?) I have instant access to far more music than I used to, but then I’m also compelled to try to hear far more than I’m capable of fully processing or appreciating. Only 3/4 through the year and I’d already listened to over 800 albums in their entirety, and that’s me trying to practice restraint. I always try to have an open mind when checking out stuff outside my usual preferences – dance pop, country, rap, electronic, black metal, etc. But it’s a balancing act between having wide ranging tastes, and giving the releases I end up covering enough repeated listens to do them justice.
Bubbling under:
These are albums that are also in my heavy rotation of favorites, and I highly recommend, depending on what sounds you’re a fan of. Another gem of British psych pop from the Mega Dodo roster, the follow up to Green Seagull’s great debut, Scarlet Fever (2018). They have stuck with the same style template, but with slightly stickier hooks and melodies. Command Module (2nd album, math rock/synthwave/prog), Exploding Flowers (2nd album after 9 years, jangle pop, garage psych), Dead Quiet (3rd and best from Vancouver hard rockers, garage doom + prog, RIYL Graveyard), Unleash The Archers (5th album of sleek power metal with amazing vocalist Brittney Slayes), Dame (debut, goth/post-punk from Boston), Bananagun (Melbourne debut of Afrobeat, psych and Tropicalia), Hum (5th, surprise return after 22 years, heavy alt rock/shoegaze/space rock), Night (4th, Sweden, slightly proggy AOR-tinged hard rock, RIYL Horisont, High Spirits), The Death Wheelers (3rd, adding garage/surf noir to their instrumental stoner doom), Sweeping Promises (debut, Boston post-punk), The Speedways (2nd, UK, surprisingly fresh power pop), Boris (maybe 20th, Japan, this time they tackle angry crust punk, sludge & thrash metal).
More: Lord Loud, Bobby Lees, Illuminati Hotties, bdrmm, L.A. Witch, Pale Divine, Brimstone Coven, Fontaines D.C., Goldray, Imperial Triumphant, The Bright Light Social Hour, Lightning Orchestra, Colorama, Bill Fisher, King Gorm, Lewis And The Strange Magics, Polymoon, Kairon; IRSE!, Atlanta, Swamp Lantern, Compro Oro With Murat Ertel & Esma Ertel, Zarla McFarlane, Crickets, Bogwife, Ganser, Kamaal Williams, El Goodo, Jon Hassell, Acid Moon And The Pregnant Sun, The Special Pillow, Black Moon Mother.
Also missed from earlier in spring: Bacchae (debut, Washington D.C., riot grrl/punk/post-punk), Borrowed Books (debut, UK, folk psych indie), Carpenter Brut (2nd, France, synthwave/horror synth), Master Boot Record (8th & 9th, Italy, synthwave, dark synth, cyber metal).
Green Seagull – Cloud Cover (Mega Dodo) Jul 31
Command Casual – Don’t Let’s Start That Again (Command Casual) Jul 31
Exploding Flowers – Stumbling Blocks (Exploding Flowers) Aug 11
Dead Quiet – Truth And Ruin (Artoffact) Sep 11
Unleash The Archers – Abyss (Napalm) Aug 21
Dame – Dame (Beach Impediment) Jul 28
Bananagun – The True Story Of Bananagun (Full Time Hobby) Jun 26
Hum – Inlet (Earth Analog) Jun 26
Night – High Tides – Distant Skies (The Sign) Sep 11
The Death Wheelers – Divine Filth (RidingEasy) Sep 11
Sweeping Promises – Hunger For A Way Out (Feel It) Aug 14
The Speedways – Radio Sounds (Snap!!) Jun 29
Boris – No (Boris) Jul 3
March 29, 2024
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Fester’s Lucky 13: 1989
